UAW to step up organizing campaign at Nissan

Washington -- United Auto Workers President Bob King said the union plans to step up its efforts to organize workers at Nissan Motor Co.'s U.S. plants unless the company agrees to fair bargaining.

In a Detroit News interview, King blasted Nissan's U.S. managers for being anti-union and said the UAW will step up protests, including at this week's Chicago Auto Show and other auto shows this year.

The UAW held events at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and at the Los Angeles Auto Show that highlighted its Nissan bargaining campaign. King called those actions the "first step of the ladder."

The UAW has made organizing foreign automakers' U.S. plants a priority, though it has been unsuccessful for decades. It is focusing on Nissan's Canton, Miss., plant.

"We're serious about this. We're not going away. We're not going to tolerate the lack of democracy and the lack of human rights and worker rights in Mississippi," King said. "That campaign will escalate if there is not a change in behavior, if there is not an agreement on a fair election process -- a free and democratic way for workers to decide if they want to be in a union."

King said Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Nissan's chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga have both expressed support for a set of principles for fair bargaining. "But their American management violate those principles every day. So we're frustrated that the global management has not really gotten down to Mississippi and found out the truth," King said.

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Nissan spokesman David Reuter said the company has told its employees in Canton, Miss., it doesn't support a union, but notes the decision is up to employees. He denied that "anti-union" meetings have taken place, but acknowledged that in quarterly meetings the topic of unionization came up twice last year.

"We feel that our plants being unionized is not the right situation for our employees or for the company. We have enjoyed a very direct relationship with our employees over the last 30 years," Reuter said. "We have a very hard-earned reputation for treating our employees with respect."

He said the protests haven't had any impact on the company's brand image.

For a year, the UAW quietly reached out to Nissan to get them to agree to talks on unionizing the plant.

"The violations continued and got worse and worse, so we're going to stand up for those workers' rights to organize, right to bargain," King said. "If Nissan's American management keeps operating the way they are, the global campaign will escalate and it's going to hurt the whole Nissan brand -- just seems crazy to me."

King said Nissan repeatedly has held "captive audience" meetings with workers in Mississippi workers and "really misrepresented the facts, if not lied to workers."

The UAW wants to be able to talk to workers about the union. It would allow Nissan management to sit in on meetings.

Nissan has unions in Japan and elsewhere.

"Why would Nissan management recognize unions and work with unions in Japan and other parts of the world, and allow American management to violate the principles they've committed to?" King asked. "This American culture unfortunately is so opposed to unionization, based on 50-year-old ideas or something."

King said Nissan is the union's "primary focus," but the UAW has committees working to eventually organize other foreign plants.

"We also recognize it's going to take a real focus -- if the company doesn't agree to a good path -- and so Nissan is our primary focus," King said.

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